Senior pitcher was only area player to make list

Dixon senior pitcher J.P. Padgett delivers on the mound during a game last season. Padgett was named to the N.C. Baseball Coaches Association 1-A all-state team for the second consecutive season.

File photo

By Chris Miller-Prep Sports Writer

Published: Saturday, July 6, 2013 at 11:00 AM.

J.P. Padgett is a baseball player and proud of it.

The recent Dixon High graduate said he likes the sport because it requires him to work on his “mental focus,” especially when he is on the pitching mound and going one-on-one against batters.

“If you played this game, you can do a lot of things in the long run,” Padgett said. “Every day we worked, for sure.”

The 18-year-old Padgett has been a baseball player for 10 years and he wouldn’t trade being on the diamond for anything else. He will continue playing the sport next season at North Carolina-Pembroke after he left Dixon having been named to the N.C. Baseball Coaches Association 1-A all-state team for the second consecutive season.

“We saw from the first day he walked on campus as a freshman that he was a cage rat,” Dixon assistant coach and team spokesman Nick Raynor said. “One thing about J.P. is that he evolved into a front-line pitcher and I give him a lot of credit. He worked on his game constantly and evolved into this pitcher.

“He pitched in the state championships as a freshman and that experience really elevated him and then he knew what he was capable of.”

However, Padgett didn’t always have a love for baseball. At one time he hated it.

The recent Dixon High graduate said he likes the sport because it requires him to work on his “mental focus,” especially when he is on the pitching mound and going one-on-one against batters.

“If you played this game, you can do a lot of things in the long run,” Padgett said. “Every day we worked, for sure.”

The 18-year-old Padgett has been a baseball player for 10 years and he wouldn’t trade being on the diamond for anything else. He will continue playing the sport next season at North Carolina-Pembroke after he left Dixon having been named to the N.C. Baseball Coaches Association 1-A all-state team for the second consecutive season.

“We saw from the first day he walked on campus as a freshman that he was a cage rat,” Dixon assistant coach and team spokesman Nick Raynor said. “One thing about J.P. is that he evolved into a front-line pitcher and I give him a lot of credit. He worked on his game constantly and evolved into this pitcher.

“He pitched in the state championships as a freshman and that experience really elevated him and then he knew what he was capable of.”

However, Padgett didn’t always have a love for baseball. At one time he hated it.

“I’ve been playing since I was six, but I took a couple of years off because I hated it,” Padgett said. “I liked soccer more, but my dad made me play. I fought it and I didn’t want to play. But I ended up loving it.”

Fast forward to the present and Padgett is quite a ball player, especially on the mound. He was the only area player named to the baseball all-state team.

“It’s a great thing to be a part of the best players in the state,” Padgett said. “We have a lot of good players around. It’s a big honor.”

This past season, the right-hander went 7-4 with a 1.72 earned run average, 101 strikeouts. Padgett also batted .337.

His efforts helped lead a Dixon team that suffered several injuries this year to a 17-10 overall record and into the East Regional semifinals of the NCHSAA 1-A playoffs.

Padgett was also a first-team pitcher on The Daily News all-area team.

Last year, he was 9-1 with a 1.72 ERA and 105 strikeouts.

“It wasn’t a standout year I had last year. I went 7-4 and I struggled a lot more this year than I usually do,” Padgett said. “We had a lot of young players and I felt more pressure to put a little more effort into it. There was a lot on my shoulders this year.”

But while Padgett’s statistics weren’t the same as last year, he felt he threw the ball better this season. Padgett was Dixon’s ace and often went up against strong lineups.

“I had a lot of arm problems last year,” he said. “This year I didn’t feel as bad as I felt last year. I felt a lot better on the mound.”

And Padgett felt good that the Dixon coaches had confidence in him to take the ball against quality teams.

“You can’t be on the mound and not have confidence,” he said. “I go right after guys. I’ve always been like that. I never take a chance to walk somebody unless coach wants me to pitch around somebody.”

Raynor called Padgett a “consistent” pitcher.

“We knew exactly what we were going to get when we gave him the ball,” Raynor said. “He was a reliable starter. He hit some bumps in the road, but he pitched his best baseball, hands down, in the playoffs. Those were his best games. He wanted to put his team on his shoulders.”